Jesse sighed and turned his back. “This is the best I can do, boss. I had to get in here to talk to you. We’ve got trouble. Have you turned on the TV?”
He reached out and pulled the sheet off the bed, handing it to Chelsea before turning back to Jesse. “No. I’m not even positive that thing works.”
The piece of shite telly was mounted to the wall and looked as though it still used tube technology. Jesse proved the thing did work as he switched it on, and Simon was immediately assaulted with the local news that surprisingly enough was all about him.
The bleach blonde news anchor stared into the monitor as she read the latest reports. “The police have issued an all-points bulletin for millionaire real estate investor and security expert Simon Weston after the brutal murders of two local law enforcement professionals at a building he owns late last night. According to police, he’s a person of interest in the killings of two off-duty police officers.”
“Motherfucker,” he breathed. This was serious. The Collective was playing hardball now. He pulled out his burner.
“Ian’s having a fucking heart attack. He called me fifteen minutes ago and I swear he made up words about what he’s going to do with my innards if I don’t give up your location. What does he mean by drawing and quartering me? I didn’t think he was very artistic,” Jesse said, taking a sip of his coffee.
Jesse hadn’t spent much time on the history of torture, obviously, which given his background seemed like an oversight to Simon. So this was how The Collective was going to play? He wasn’t without his own connections. He dialed a familiar number and hit speaker. Chelsea deserved to know what was going on.
“Simon, they’re looking for me, too.” Chelsea had wrapped the sheet around her and she stood beside him, staring up at the screen. Sure enough, her face popped up on the newscast.
His blood practically boiled. The minute her face was known, The Collective might not be the only group after her. “I’m going to handle this.”
One ring and then two, and then a masculine voice came over the line. “This is Brighton. You better talk fast because I’m having a shit day and this is my personal line.”
“It’s Simon and I’ve got you on speaker, Derek.” Derek Brighton was a long-term cop with the Dallas Police Department. He also happened to have been one of Ian’s teammates in Afghanistan and was currently a member of Sanctum. He was McKay-Taggart’s liaison with the DPD. Simon had to hope he had some answers. “Do you want to explain why you’ve put an APB on me?”
“Fuck, man.” Brighton’s voice went low as though he didn’t want anyone to hear him. “You need to come in and now. I did not put that call out. I didn’t know a damn thing about it until I got in this morning. You want to explain what’s happening? I’ve got two dead cops on my hands and an entire department calling for your rich-boy head. Not to mention the fact that Ian’s up my ass. I don’t like having that bastard up my ass.”
“What you have is two dirty dead cops. They came after me last night in my building and, yes, I put them both down. It was self-defense. Check the security cameras and then get to Chelsea’s apartment. Whatever you do, don’t start her car. There’s a bomb on it. You’ll find another in her flat, though she disarmed that one. This is about Chelsea. They’re trying to get to her.”
“Fuck me hard.” His voice got further away. “I’m going to need a bomb unit. Get one together and I’ll ride along. I have the address.” Derek brought the phone back. “Come in, man. Let me try to work this out for you. I don’t even know how the media got hold of this so fast. We have a leak somewhere.”
Simon could guess. This was all part of a well-coordinated attack to give him no place to hide Chelsea. They wanted to put as much pressure on him to give her up as possible. “What you have is several members of the force on the payroll of a group known as The Collective. I believe you’ll find they also own the bloody media. We’ve run up against them twice now. Have Ian send you intel on them, but I have to tell you, it isn’t much.”
Chelsea leaned in. “Simon was protecting me when he killed those douchebag asshats. I’ll testify to that. Hell, I killed one of them myself. If you want to arrest him for something, arrest him for stealing my panties and giving them to a raccoon.”
“What?” Brighton asked. “Is she there with you? Why did you let her wear panties in the first place?”
He was losing control of the situation fast. “I need to know if you’re going to help me, Brighton.”
He sighed over the line. “Of course I will. If you killed those men, you had a damn good reason. I know that. I’ll help you out of sheer guilt. I’ve kind of been an asshole to you because I was jealous. I have to make up for it because I found out you weren’t sleeping with my girl.”
His girl? Was he talking about Karina? He’d never slept with Karina. He turned to explain to Chelsea but she was smiling, seemingly unworried about the possibility of him lying about his sex life.
Chelsea’s eyes lit up. “Derek has a girl? Shit. Derek, I told you those Japanese blow-up dolls aren’t real girls.”
Jesse shook his head. “Didn’t you hear? Brighton’s finally doing Karina.”
That was news to Simon. And not really important at the moment.
“Simon never slept with Karina. She’s so not his type,” Chelsea huffed. “And good for you, Derek. Oh, Karina would get my panties back. She’s a badass. She can take out that raccoon. Derek, I need to hire Karina.”
Jesse looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “Dude, the raccoon had babies in your panties. You should hire Karina to buy you new ones.”
She pointed a finger Jesse’s way. “Good thinking, Murdoch. Tell Karina I wear a six and I like cotton briefs.”
“Is she serious?” Derek asked.
Simon took the phone off speaker. “Both of you hush. This is bloody important.”
“So are panties,” Chelsea huffed and walked to stand by Jesse. She took a Styrofoam cup from him. “Do you have any sugar?”
“I poured half a jar in there for you,” Jesse assured her.
At least they had something else to talk about now. He put the phone back to his ear. “How serious is this search of yours?”